The desire to increase laboratory throughput of DNA typing has led to the development of microarrays. Small, single-use plastic chips are manufactured that hold selected DNA fragments to which SNPs from an evidentiary or known sample will bind or hybridize. Hybridization that has taken place on the chips after the addition of extracted and amplified DNA is signaled by light emitting chemicals and detected inside an instrument. High throughput automation of this system is possible.

Microarrays are already used extensively in studies of human and animal genetic variation and gene expression.

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